The 52-year-old, who fought one of Britain's biggest and most acrimonious divorce battles with ex-wife Michelle, 49, was discovered impaled on railings beneath the balcony of his £3 million ($5.6 million) Marylebone property.

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Mr Young's body was found by residents in Marylebone on Monday afternoon.

Firefighters had to cut through the railings with an angle grinder before his body could be removed.

Scotland Yard said it was not treating the death as suspicious and the coroner had been informed.

But friends of the financier, who was known to have been involved in a string of murky international business dealings, last night questioned whether he would have taken his own life.

One man who refused to be named looked visibly shocked as he paused for a few moments in front of the railings where Mr Young met his death.

The man, in his thirties, said: "We don't know what happened though, we don't know if it was suicide yet."

Another friend, who said he had come to know Mr Young through one of his daughters, also said he found it hard to accept that he would have taken his own life.

Describing him as "an inspiration", he said Mr Young had always urged people "never give up", adding that he was shocked Mr Young appeared to have "given up" himself.

He said: "I only found out an hour ago when a friend told me. He was a good guy at heart; he was definitely someone to look up to.

"It came to me as a shock. He was an inspiration to anyone who was not from a privileged background. He was a self-made man from humble beginnings. He was a good idol.

"He taught me to work hard and never give up, that's why this came to me as a shock."

When asked if financial problems had contributed to Mr Young's death he simply said: "There were other issues."

A friend of Michelle's, who also visited the scene, had a more callous assessment, claiming his death was "divine justice".

The woman, who refused to be named, said her friend would now get the £25 million ($47 million) owed to her following a bitter six-year divorce battle.

She said: "I've known Michelle for years and I knew he was hiding money from her, that's why she battled him in court for six years. Divorces are hard and she's suffered a lot.

"Now the government will be able to pursue his assets and she'll get the £25 million he owed her."

The woman also implied the death might have been a tragic accident, suggesting Mr Young might have fallen out of the window while smoking a cigarette.

She said: "I saw him at court once, he was smoking outside, that's how I know he might have fallen. Maybe his death was divine justice."

But in the coming weeks, those looking into the circumstances of his untimely death will no doubt want to shine a light on some of Mr Young's most recent and murky business dealings.

His startling rise from a tenement block in a run-down area of Dundee to one of Britain's wealthiest and most influential property developers and entrepreneurs was always something of a mystery.

Leaving school at 16 with few qualifications, Mr Young began his business empire by riding on the back of the property boom in the late 1980s.

Meeting future wife Michelle in 1988, he was given a helping hand up the ladder by her father, Terence Orwell, who was himself a successful businessman.

But as the money rolled in even Michelle, who had worked alongside her husband in the early years, admitted she had little idea where his success was coming from.

"He was originally from Dundee and when we met he said he was in the property business, but he didn't explain too much about it. He was always very secretive, even then," she once said.

Michelle said he once made hundreds of millions of pounds from a telecoms deal, but remained coy about the exact details.

By the mid-1990s, Mr Young was one of Britain's wealthiest entrepreneurs, with a Palladian-style mansion in Oxfordshire, a £6 million beachfront home in Florida and a yacht moored in Monaco.

He counted Topshop tycoon Sir Philip Green, Scottish billionaire Sir Tom Hunter and US President Bill Clinton among his friends and contacts.

But one source, who knew Mr Young at the height of his success, said he was also forging relationships with a number of less savoury characters, including members of the Russian underworld.

During the epic divorce battle, one British businessman told friends he had severed ties with Mr Young because, in his words, he had become a "bag man for the Mafia".

It was through his involvement in a mega property development in Russia, called Project Moscow, that Mr Young claimed to have lost all of his wealth.

Little was known of the deal, but Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who himself died in mysterious circumstances last year, was known to be an investor.

Mr Berezovsky, who was living in exile in Britain after falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found dead in March last year at his home in Sunningdale, Surrey. He had a ligature around his neck and had been suffering from depression. An autopsy later concluded that his death was consistent with hanging and there was no evidence of a violent struggle.

But speculation remained about the circumstances and timing of his demise.

Mr Young had helped broker the Project Moscow deal, which promised to provide him and the other investors with staggering returns.

But in 2006 he claimed the entire deal had suddenly imploded, leaving him and his family not just destitute but with debts of almost £30 million.

While he is known to have remained on good terms with many of the creditors, some of whom were friends, and continued to fund his lifestyle after the deal turned sour, it is not known if he owed any Russian investors.

During the court battle with Michelle, Mr Young claimed he had been suffering from a debilitating depressive illness, something that was accepted by the judge after seeing medical reports.

It later emerged that Mr Young had been sectioned twice under the Mental Health Act and it is also understood that he had made suicide attempts in the past.

Telegraph, London

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